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The Hulk’s adventure in Jotunheim with Thor comes to an enjoyable end. This issue (and this arc as a whole really) did feel pretty inconsequential, but I liked it nonetheless, and I can’t really say it’s inconsequential at this point, knowing Mark Waid, this Eiderdurm stuff is going to be very important. There was plenty of action and it showed the first steps in Waid’s building of a supporting cast. We now know why exactly Patty is trying to commit ‘suicide by Hulk’. She has Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, and if she just kills herself, her father won’t get any Life Insurance. But if she were to somehow be accidentally smashed? Well, he’d be quids in!

This is some seriously dark stuff actually, and I find it interesting that Waid is tackling real-life medical problems both in this book, and with Foggy Nelson’s cancer in his Daredevil. Is this the basis for the upcoming crossover? Or is it part of something bigger? I suppose in this book, it’s used to play up the idea of science vs magic. Bruce Banner is a logical scientist, but he often comes up against things he can’t explain. This is shown even more with the way Waid comes up with a scientific explanation behind the ‘magic’ of Mjolnir. The reason only people who are ‘worthy’ can lift it is because of gravitons! Or maybe it is just magic. I don’t think we’ll ever know, but I like that Waid is exploring this stuff.

The art from Walt Simonson was of course fantastic, just seeing him draw Thor is awesome and he does a mean Hulk too. That double-page spread where Hulk is smashing the Frost Giants was awesome. I also like how he draws Agent Coulson to look a lot like Clark Gregg, but it still fits within his own unique style. Unlike a lot of his contemporaries from the 1980s, Simonson is still as good today as he always was, and it’s great to see that.

I have tried to keep an open mind about it and I am sure that there will be some type of explanation for it soon but I just do not like the Hulk "armor" that he has been wearing around.

Aside from that, I really did enjoy this arc although I did feel like the missing scientist/Frost Giant doppelganger was wrapped up a little too quickly and neatly. It would have been neat to explore the possibility of him returning with the team to the present but the story isn't really about him, now is it? Waid's little explanation about the possibility of science being behind Mjolnir was cute but at the end of the day, I prefer that good, old fashioned magic is the power behind Thor.

nietoperz wrote:There has been an explanation: the armour is for Banner, not Hulk.

Oh yeah, I guess I forgot about that. I don't really understand why Banner needs armor either though since any type of physical trauma that could be considered harmful to him will just trigger his transformation into the Hulk. I still think that there is more too it but I could be wrong. Still don't like it...